{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/19011"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/19011","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"Communication, interpretation, and relationship: A study of a computer-mediated fan community","abstract":"\"This dissertation focuses on the creation of community in a computer-mediated Usenet newsgroup called \"\"rec.arts.tv.soaps\"\" (r.a.t.s.) which discusses soap operas. In newsgroups, communicative practice is the participants' primarily tool for creating social meanings. My central question is how participants create group coherence in this terrain with neither places nor faces.\"","abstract_html":""This dissertation focuses on the creation of community in a computer-mediated Usenet newsgroup called ""rec.arts.tv.soaps"" (r.a.t.s.) which discusses soap operas. In newsgroups, communicative practice is the participants' primarily tool for creating social meanings. My central question is how participants create group coherence in this terrain with neither places nor faces."","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Baym, Nancy Kirsten"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Communication","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Miller, Peggy J."],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-05-07T11:54:17Z","date_published":"2011-05-07T11:54:17Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:12Z","subjects":["Speech Communication","Mass Communication","Computer Science"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Copyright 1994 Baym, Nancy Kirsten"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["AAI9512297","(UMI)AAI9512297"],"render_values":[{"text":"AAI9512297","href":null,"code":true},{"text":"(UMI)AAI9512297","href":null,"code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/19011","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Miller, Peggy J."]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Baym, Nancy Kirsten"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2011-05-07T11:54:17Z","10000-01-01","1994"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Communication"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Speech Communication","Mass Communication","Computer Science"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 1994 Baym, Nancy Kirsten"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/19011","AAI9512297","(UMI)AAI9512297"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["\"This dissertation focuses on the creation of community in a computer-mediated Usenet newsgroup called \"\"rec.arts.tv.soaps\"\" (r.a.t.s.) which discusses soap operas. In newsgroups, communicative practice is the participants' primarily tool for creating social meanings. My central question is how participants create group coherence in this terrain with neither places nor faces.\"","Because the participants are first and foremost soap opera fans, my answers begin with the literatures on soap operas and on fan communities. Chapter One synthesizes work from a variety of research perspectives, including mass communication, cultural studies, and literary studies, in order to elucidate how the soap genre invites particular viewer practices. In Chapter Two I look beyond how soap texts engage fans to how soap fans engage one another and create fan cultures. While the work on fan culture is rich in its understanding of how fans appropriate and transform cultural texts, it lacks a clear conceptualization of culture. In Chapter Three I remedy this by turning to practice theories of culture, which provide the key questions and methods that underlie my analysis.","The remaining four chapters address the questions of what institutional structures shape r.a.t.s., what practices are most important, what formal cues are used to create social meaning, what affective stances are conveyed through practice, how individuality and solidarity are created, and what purposes underlie r.a.t.s. practice. Chapter Four provides a broad overview of r.a.t.s. and its communication practices. Chapter Five examines the explicit marking of genres. Chapter Six analyzes social alignment in r.a.t.s., focusing on participants' agreements and at how they handle the socially problematic task of disagreeing with one another. Chapter Seven looks closely at the humorous performances which are so central to the appeal of r.a.t.s. Together these analyses detail the creation of a social world in r.a.t.s. and build a framework for the analysis of other computer-mediated groups.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T11:54:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9512297.pdf: 12779616 bytes, checksum: 8fd225f93e5b1335de43fdea72cf6f1e (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:34:03Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:12:50-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Communication, interpretation, and relationship: A study of a computer-mediated fan community"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Miller, Peggy J."],"dc:creator":["Baym, Nancy Kirsten"],"dc:date":["2011-05-07T11:54:17Z","10000-01-01","1994"],"dc:description":["\"This dissertation focuses on the creation of community in a computer-mediated Usenet newsgroup called \"\"rec.arts.tv.soaps\"\" (r.a.t.s.) which discusses soap operas. In newsgroups, communicative practice is the participants' primarily tool for creating social meanings. My central question is how participants create group coherence in this terrain with neither places nor faces.\"","Because the participants are first and foremost soap opera fans, my answers begin with the literatures on soap operas and on fan communities. Chapter One synthesizes work from a variety of research perspectives, including mass communication, cultural studies, and literary studies, in order to elucidate how the soap genre invites particular viewer practices. In Chapter Two I look beyond how soap texts engage fans to how soap fans engage one another and create fan cultures. While the work on fan culture is rich in its understanding of how fans appropriate and transform cultural texts, it lacks a clear conceptualization of culture. In Chapter Three I remedy this by turning to practice theories of culture, which provide the key questions and methods that underlie my analysis.","The remaining four chapters address the questions of what institutional structures shape r.a.t.s., what practices are most important, what formal cues are used to create social meaning, what affective stances are conveyed through practice, how individuality and solidarity are created, and what purposes underlie r.a.t.s. practice. Chapter Four provides a broad overview of r.a.t.s. and its communication practices. Chapter Five examines the explicit marking of genres. Chapter Six analyzes social alignment in r.a.t.s., focusing on participants' agreements and at how they handle the socially problematic task of disagreeing with one another. Chapter Seven looks closely at the humorous performances which are so central to the appeal of r.a.t.s. Together these analyses detail the creation of a social world in r.a.t.s. and build a framework for the analysis of other computer-mediated groups.","Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-07T11:54:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license.txt: 4922 bytes, checksum: 910b249b4beec47e7ab768910c8f966f (MD5) 9512297.pdf: 12779616 bytes, checksum: 8fd225f93e5b1335de43fdea72cf6f1e (MD5) Previous issue date: 1994","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by Howard Ding (hding2@illinois.edu) on 2011-05-07T14:34:03Z Item is restricted indefinitely.","Restriction data tranferred 2014-07-01T11:12:50-05:00 Original Data Group with Access UIUC Users [automated] Release Date: none Reason: ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","ETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permission","U of I Only"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/19011","AAI9512297","(UMI)AAI9512297"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 1994 Baym, Nancy Kirsten"],"dc:subject":["Speech Communication","Mass Communication","Computer Science"],"dc:title":["Communication, interpretation, and relationship: A study of a computer-mediated fan community"],"dc:type":["text"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Communication"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:12Z"}